AUBURN — With a minute to go, LSU guard Tremont Waters heaved up a running 8-footer. It clanked off the rim, but Kavell Bigby-Williams was there to clean up the offensive board. Samir Doughty inadvertently fouled Waters quickly after the offensive board, which resulted in two free throws to stretch it from a two-possession game to three.
That moment put Auburn down seven points with less than 50 seconds to play. It served as an accurate microcosm of Auburn's struggles throughout the game.
It forced a miraculous comeback effort in the final moments that fell short in a 83-78 loss for Auburn on the road at LSU in a game the Tigers led by 16 points in the first half.
"Again, it's a missed opportunity for another Quadrant 1 win," Pearl said on the Auburn Sports Network broadcast after the game. "This would've been four straight over LSU. That matters at Auburn. We just didn't take advantage of it."
Bigby-Williams' late-game offensive board was one of many throughout the contest. LSU scored 29 second-half points off 22 offensive rebounds. LSU's length in Austin Wiley's limited minutes proved to be too tough of a challenge to overcome.
It wasn't the only statistical difference maker in Auburn's defeat, however.
Much of it was self-inflicted.
Auburn, averaging roughly 12 turnovers per game this season, turned the ball over 19 times. LSU took advantage of those Auburn miscue to account for 31 points off turnovers.
LSU (19-4, 9-1 in SEC) offensive rebounding and Auburn's (16-7, 5-5 in SEC) sloppy offensive play prevented Auburn from finding a coveted road victory against a top-25 game.
"They had 29 second-chance points. We'll talk for a while about all different things, but when it comes down to it, that teams recovers 40 percent of their missed shots. They had 22 offensive rebounds, and we had 27 defensive rebounds," Pearl said. "You've got to rebound like your life depended on it. That was a big focus. Our first-shot defense was great, but gotta get defensive rebounds."
Even with the seven-point deficit in the final minute, Auburn didn't go away quietly.
LSU missed a few free throws, Auburn forced a five-second violation and hit some shots to cut it to three — with the ball — with 15 seconds to go. Three-point attempts by Jared Harper and Bryce Brown came up just short and both reacted to contact that went uncalled.
The frustrating finish was enhanced by how Auburn started.
Pearl's squad jumped out to a 26-10 lead in the first half, looking nearly unstoppable from long range. In the first half, 33 of Auburn's first 37 points were 3-point makes. The Tigers hit 11 3-pointers in the first half, a number cut to only five in the second half. Auburn wrapped up the game shooting 48 percent and 42 percent from deep compared to LSU's 39 percent and 33 percent, respectively.
None of it mattered due to Auburn's offensive carelessness and inability to keep LSU off the offensive glass.
Harper led all Auburn scorers with 25 points on 7-of-11 shooting. He added seven assists and six rebounds. Chuma Okeke, Bryce Brown and Anfernee McLemore joined Harper in double figures. Okeke recorded a 12-point, 14-rebound double-double — his second double-double in his last four games.
Pearl took an optimistic approach to the loss.
"It was a great effort. We played really well. We are a much better basketball team than we were three weeks ago," Pearl said.
PLAY OF THE GAME: Tremont Waters 3-point bucket to end the first half — This may come off strange play of the game. There wasn't anything super flashy about it, and at the time, LSU still faced a deficit. But when Auburn jumped out to an early 26-10 lead, LSU had to scratch and claw to make it respectable to end the first half. When Waters pump faked Bryce Brown and hit a long 3-pointer right at the end of the first half, it cut Auburn's lead to three points. It sent LSU into the break feeling confident despite trailing. It sent Auburn into the locker room feeling like it missed an opportunity to put the game away early. That momentum was seen early in the second half, which helped LSU regain the lead and never relinquish it.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Jared Harper — This could've gone to a few LSU players — Waters or Naz Reid, most likely — but Harper's productivity throughout kept this one close when LSU started to pull away in the second half. Harper finished with a 25-point, 7-assist, 6-rebound outing that probably would've been in a winning effort had it not been for 5 of the team's 19 turnovers.
STAT OF THE NIGHT: Points of turnovers and second-chance points — These statistics were touched on above, but LSU's 29 second-chance points off 22 offensive boards and 31 points of 19 forced turnovers isn't a recipe that will win Auburn many road games in SEC play.
QUOTE OF THE NIGHT: On the three-point halftime lead — "We should've been up double digits in the first half. That might've changed things."
